Mara the cat had an unexpected and intense interest in the still image of yesterday’s post when it was on the computer screen. She must have a strong recognition of snakes, even two-dimensional still images of snakes, from her brief time as a wild outdoor kitten.

Homage to Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey that was released fifty years ago in 1968. Black & White Kitty, like the proverbial Star Child from the film, rises ominously, or hopefully if you wish, above the Clavius Moon Base. The reasoning here must be as enigmatic as the actual film.

Mara the cat looks in on the strange goings-on in the Krell laboratory discovered on the planet Altair IV by Dr. Morbius and others from Earth. Though she may look it, Mara is not related to Morbius’ Id nor the similarity to William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Reimagined from the classic 1956 science fiction film Forbidden Planet.

“Hey, what’s going on in there? Why am I locked out? I can see your lips moving but can’t hear you! HAL and I are worried about you two!” My Black & White Kitty reimagined as a crew member of the Discovery in Stanley Kubrick’s classic film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Mara the kitten sits at the feet of Anubis, one of the ancient Egyptian gods. It is thought that Anubis, a jackal headed man, became associated with the dead and the afterlife because of the wild dogs and jackals that would often be seen in ancient Egyptian cemeteries, often digging up and eating the dead.